Anybody interested in this little Tool?

[Snoopy]

Hello everybody,

I created a small program for myself, where I can enter the departure airport, min. flight distance and max flight
distance, and the
program will give you a randomly calculated destination airport within these limits.

It looks like that:

Please enter your departure airport code (e.g. KDAB) : KLAX
Please enter your minimum flight distance in Nm : 250
Please enter your maximum flight distance in Nm : 400

******************************************************************
Your destination airport today is KPHX
The direct distance between KLAX and KPHX 320.83 Nm

Have a good flight Sir!
******************************************************************

I works nice for myself and its more interesting if you dont excactly know where your supposed to go that day

Currently I use a US aiport database and one for germany, but it should also easy to create one for worldwide
airports. Also the program
is not checking, if your destination airport is suitable for your aircraft. This could be added in future. But its also
interesting to check, if your
aircraft can do it or not. If not you have to tell your passengers

So if your interested, I will upload it here.

Currently a little program which can be executed on the DOS Terminal.

[EDIT BY ADMIN] this tool is available here:
http://www.fspassengers.com/?action=down...type=Title


Regards,
Pete

[DBE]

I use similar online tools as I'm always limited by the time (i.e. max. 1:30 at a time).

So if would definitely be worth a look!



Post Edited ( 09-30-05 11:25 )

[Nick75]

I'd be very interested in this program. Personally I don't keep to set destinations when I'm using FSP, and simply fly to whichever
destination I feel like flying to on the day. Though I can also be pretty indecisive at times pondering where to fly to, so this program would
be great!

Maybe it would also be good if you could define whether you wished to fly to a large/medium sized airport or a small airfield/strip? If the
program could somehow identify each ICAO code with the number of gates available at that particular airport as defined in AFCAD, or
something similar (i.e a large airport classed as any airport with 'x' number of gates or more, etc.). Although I could imagine that maybe
quite difficult to implement...

[Snoopy]

Hey Nick,

I had the same problem you have. I couldnt always decide, where to go and so I came up with this idea and did some programming.

Since I fly charter, this represents almost how it is in real life.

Well, currently I use an airport database which has the ICAO Code, the lat and the long positions. If I would have a database, where I
could see the number of gates each airport has, I can easily incorporate that in my program.

We then should agree, what we consider as small, medium or large airport.

If some of you have more suggestions for such a program, just post them and I will see what I can do.

Since I am doing that in my small free time be patient as well

Maybe I can also come up with a more Windows like program in the near future

Regards,
Pete

P.S. I will post my current program probably on sunday, because I am back home then.

[Nick75]

Hi Pete,

I've been doing some thinking about this..I can maybe have a go myself at compiling a list for you (say, first of all for the USA) of what
would be classed as 'International', 'Regional', and other, smaller airports/airstrips, as I have a Jeppesen Pilot's Atlas at home which
distinguishes these differences on the map (i.e. showing 'International' airports as a diamond, 'regional/medium sized aiports as a
circle, etc. It also colour-codes each diamond/circle which represents an airport in relation to runway-size, so I can also specify (maybe a
bit later on) which of the larger airports for instance only have a short runway available to land on, and so forth if that would help (and
maybe just forget about the 'number of gates' idea for the time being...).

Maybe it wouldn't take that long to just go through the Atlas state-by-state and first weed out all the International airports. I can then do the
regional airports, and the remaining ICAOs can automatically be classed as smaller airports/airstrips. Maybe if you send me a copy of
the list you have of all US ICAOs and specify how you want me to distinguish them on the list as international, regional airports, etc, as I'd
be happy to help out on this.

In the meantime, if you or anyone else has any ideas on a better way of doing this, then great.

edit - why not let Dan know about this program...eventually, it can always be directly incorporated into FSP at the 'set destination' menu perhaps?? And for those that don't want a random destination, then it could simply be disabled in the FSP general options list. Just a thought anyway..



Post Edited ( 09-30-05 13:34 )

[dtinc155]

Yea, I'm very interested in that. I can never decide where to fly to. LoL. And I'm probably missing a good many interesting airports in FS. I
also would like to have options for specifing size of the airports, length of runways, and wether or not the airport has ILS capabilities.

Sounds like a handy little tool you've come up with.

[SWAFO]

Very interesting program. I personally wouldn't use it, but I'm sure others that like that random aspect would. I personally like to KNOW
where I'm headed, and where I've been!

[Dutch64]

SWAFO wrote:
I personally like to KNOW
where I'm headed, and where I've been!

Then stop drinking Brad

[Snoopy]

Hey guys,

I like to know where I am going and where I was as well and thats why I stopped drinking during the flight....

I liked the idea of the old Airbus A320 program ( I can't even remember who developed it....32 years old and my brain is already loosing
power) where you have been told where to fly.

The way I fly is that I always depart from the airport where I landed last, but I am always thinking where to go next and what would be an
airport at a suitable distance. Thats where I came up with the idea to do that little program. Its cool, because my Boss (the DOS
Window ) is telling me where to go next and because I do charter in a King Air B200 its kinda realistic for me.

Nick: Thank you for offering help. I will send you the airport list with the ICAO codes on the weekend. You are right, we should
concentrate on the bigger airports first. I found a link on the Internet, where the bigger U.S. airports are listed by state .

http://www.freetraveltips.com/Links/Link...rt_Dom.htm

Don: If I would have all the info availabe for an airport, I can easily incorporate that in my program.

A line in the database could look like the following:

ICAO_Code, Latitude, Longitude, Airport_Type, ILS_Capability, Max_Runway_Length

as Airport_Type: I, R, S (International, Regional, Small)
ILS_Capability: 0 or 1

and so on.

Pete

[Nick75]

That site will be a good help Pete, thanks. And just send us the list whenever you're ready. I can add a value for runway lengths easily
from the info I have (which shows them as being either A: more than 5000ft, B: 2500-5000ft, or C: less than 2500ft). Don't know whether I
could get info which would tell me at-a-quick-glance on whether each international/regional airport has ILS capability or not. Going into
AFCAD for each airport might prove far too time-consuming...8o Especially as mine seems to take ages every time I click on 'open
airport'...

Anyhow, if anyone has any better ideas of where I can get this kind of info then feel free to let me know.

[SWAFO]

Dutch64 wrote:

SWAFO wrote:
I personally like to KNOW
where I'm headed, and where I've been!

Then stop drinking Brad

I'm not a heavy drinker as some of you may gather from my postings. It's just required to drink for me to post as much as I do here.

[Dutch64]

I'm not a heavy drinker as some of you may gather from my postings. It's just required to drink for me to post as much as I do here.

I should remember that excuse! It's a new one to use

[DBE]

Dutch64 wrote:

I'm not a heavy drinker as some of you may gather from my postings. It's just required to drink for me to post as much as I do here.

I should remember that excuse! It's a new one to use

Perfect!!

"Dahling, Sherry contributes towards stimulating my poetic verb whilst posting in this forum"
"*OUCH*"
"Honey: believe me! Brad does it as.."
"*OUCH*"
"Baby: that was a 1978 Talisker you just poured down the drain..."

[TonyH]

[Snoopy]

Nick,

can you PM me your email address, so I can send you the database?

Cheers,
Pete